Can The County’s Housing Crisis Be Solved? Slowly But Surely, Says Housing North’s Yarrow Brown

On Monday the Leelanau Ticker shared tales of two home-hunters — lifelong Leelanau locals in a real-time struggle to compete for housing. They're among many young professionals — and workers of any age — who are struggling to live where they do business, while watching their hometowns become havens where only the most wealthy can afford to live.

After the story came out, we heard back immediately from readers who asked: “but what’s the solution?”

Taking the bold stance that this home shortage can be solved is Yarrow Brown (pictured). She is Housing North’s Executive Director, and — as a resident and planning commissioner in Cleveland Township — also has an insider’s view of the conversations and policy changes she says need to take place so that Leelanau can remain a county where people can live, work, and raise a family.

Leelanau Ticker: Let’s start big picture; what are the latest needs across the region?
Brown: We worked with Networks Northwest in 2019 to facilitate a target market study that showed a demand of over 15,000 housing units over the next 5 years in our 10-county region. Much of the need is for rentals — particularly for lower-income households who find themselves priced out of the current market — but there’s need for housing across the income spectrum, among young people, retirees, and working families.

Leelanau Ticker: Got it. So when we talk about “affordable housing,” we are also talking about homes for young professionals, young families?
Brown: Yes, there was a recent survey of young professionals which shows that need. [80.3 percent of respondents said it was either somewhat difficult or extremely difficult to find housing that fits their needs in Northern Michigan, with nearly 70 percent citing affordability as the main reason.]

Leelanau Ticker: Let’s zoom into the current housing landscape in Leelanau County...
Brown:  For Leelanau County, there is a need for 668 homes/rentals — 367 rentals and 301 home ownership. Those could be newly constructed homes or apartments, or they could be the repair and conversion of existing homes and buildings in the county. For the rentals, the majority of the need is for those earning less than $26k per year. For home ownership, the majority of the need is for those making $60k to $100k.

Leelanau Ticker: How is that similar — or not — to the county’s closest neighbors?
Brown: Most of the market analysis for Traverse City and the City of Frankfort, for example, is for single unit apartments or smaller square footage units for young professionals. But we do see a need for all types of housing in our region across all income levels.

Leelanau Ticker: What makes home-hunting for young people different today than even the recent past?
Brown: What people make is not increasing at the same rate as the price of homes. Right now, the average home prices is well above $250,000 and it would take an income of $100,000 to afford that mortgage. With the pandemic, we are also seeing people move from more populated areas to northwest Michigan and purchasing homes that could be available to our existing year-round workforce. We are also seeing rising construction costs, long-term rentals being converted to short-term rentals, and the household size decreasing.

Leelanau Ticker: What’s your stance on short-term rentals?
Brown: We are not opposed to short-term rentals but feel there needs to be a balance in our communities to ensure there is enough stock for those who need to live here year-round.

Leelanau Ticker: How feasible is it to carve out more housing opportunities within the county?
Brown: While there are opportunities to create developments in the county, and some people can afford this option, it can be costly to plan for individual wells or a community septic system along with utilities, roads, and more. We are working on mapping the areas that would benefit from housing or have housing opportunities close to amenities and existing resources which helps cut down project costs…and, yes, we do have places in the townships that could be made available for housing. These include land that is in the Land Bank Authority or land that does not have high conservation value or steep topography that would make it cost prohibitive to develop or impact our natural resources.

Even in Cleveland Township where I am on the planning commission, we have some places that would make sense to have more housing or increase density, but also areas that would not make sense to allow this. 

Leelanau Ticker: Once spots are identified, how does housing come to fruition? What are the roadblocks?
Brown: We have a lot of NIMBYism, where many people in Leelanau County do not want to see more than single family homes or do not want to see increased density. Suttons Bay is an example where Habitat for Humanity was proposing a duplex and the project was not approved. This is where we have to do some work and show some creative solutions where duplexes can look like single family homes from the front, or allow for smaller square footage homes or allowing for accessory dwelling units (or ADU’s).

Leelanau Ticker: Does Housing North have some super Leelanau-specific solutions?
Brown: We are working with the Leelanau Housing Action Committee, Sleeping Bear Gateways Council, Habitat for Humanity, and Leelanau Christian Neighbors to help implement their housing goals. While it will take time to roll these out and present them to all the units of government and communities, we are hopeful the community will get behind this effort and we can make some significant changes.

Leelanau Ticker: Can policy change at the state level help?
Brown: A lot of the proposed bills through the Housing Michigan Coalition (HMC) would benefit Leelanau County. Housing North is part of the executive committee for the HMC and this has been a priority for us since we were formed. We will have a hearing on May 13th.

Leelanau Ticker: As in, tomorrow! Are you headed to Lansing for this?
Brown: Kent [Wood], our Policy Advisor will be there, and I will be there remotely. We will focus on defining the issue for the committee members, and explaining some of the bills and why we believe they are good policy for increasing housing solutions in Northern Michigan and across the state. We hope to use this hearing to “set the table” for another committee hearing where committee members will hopefully vote them to the full Senate. From there, the bills would go to the House for the same process before hopefully finding their way to Governor Whitmer's desk for her signature .

Leelanau Ticker: What bills do you think are important to keep an eye on? 
Brown:  These bills are mostly to allow local units of government to make decisions for housing and have less restrictions on from the state. I would say the Employer Housing Tax Credit Bill and the Neighborhood Enterprise Zone Bill would be the most impactful for those in Leelanau County right now. We also believe it's important for people to note the level of bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate for these bills. Housing is not a partisan issue. 

Leelanau Ticker: What about those in the county who want to see change, but don’t know what to do?
Brown: They can advocate for their township to be Housing Ready. Through the Leelanau Housing Action Committee (HAC), a Housing Ready Checklist was presented to each township. Citizens can ask about the progress of this checklist and encourage the townships in Leelanau County to implement some of the zoning changes. Or encourage their county and township or village to support a Housing Ready Program Director who would work in Leelanau County to make it more 'housing ready' for developers and see that the tools are in place to provide housing across the income spectrum.

Leelanau Ticker: So it’s all grassroots-style?
Brown: Yes. We need people to show up in meetings in support of housing projects and proposed zoning changes. And to have important conversations with their neighbors and elected officials as to why these changes are important. 

Above: The ideal ratio of the Area Median Income and Median Home Price is 2.6. The chart shows how Leelanau County stacks up — closer to 5.0.